A CHARRED crucifix has become the symbol for a group of priests who decided to hold a 24-hour fast as a mark of their hurt and sorrow at the Church’s child abuse scandals.

PARISH priests in a Midlands town are this morning halfway through a 24-hour fast and penance held to acknowledge the pain caused by decades of Irish clerical child abuse their own colleagues caused.

Four students from the Pontifical Irish College in Rome are to be ordained to the Catholic priesthood this year, it was confirmed today.